Comic Review: The New Republic Encounters a Different Enemy On Multiple Fronts in "Star Wars" (2025) #1
Today saw the release of the debut issue in the new volume of Marvel Comics’ flagship Star Wars title, which is set after the events of Return of the Jedi and The Battle of Jakku maxi-series. Below are my brief recap and thoughts on this premiere installment.
If you read my reviews for The Battle of Jakku this past winter here at Laughing Place, you know that I had a rather luke-warm (pun intended) response to that series, so it was with caution– but also optimism, as always– that I approached the beginning of this newly relaunched Star Wars title, written by the same author: Alex Segura (Star Wars: Poe Dameron - Free Fall). But I enjoyed the teaser we got last weekend with the Free Comic Book Day issue, and #1 is set immediately thereafter, with Luke Skywalker and New Republic pilot Rynn Zenat in pursuit of pirates who have been attacking NR transports and stealing supplies.
But during this mission, both Rynn and Luke are shocked to find that these pirates are using a refitted Imperial star destroyer as part of their fleet, which is why it’s been so easy for them to destroy other vessels. Outgunned and facing additional casualties, Skywalker sends the rest of Squadron 77 (this name is a little on-the-nose) back to Chandrila while he and Rynn pursue one of the downed starfighters down to the surface of an unnamed gas giant in the Fenril sector. There, Luke begins to feel a bit uneasy, almost as though he’s back in the dark-side cave on Dagobah, but the two pilots track down the crashed pirate anyway. Meanwhile on Chandrila, the nascent (and temporary) home of the New Republic, Princess Leia and Chancellor Mon Mothma meet with gruff representatives from Pirros, who just so happen to be from the Fenril sector as well.
The Pirrosi decline to join the New Republic, instead declaring that they’ve formed their own government in their sector and warning Leia and Mothma that trade between the two regional bodies will be suspended until a new treaty can be signed, and that entry into their part of the galaxy will be met with brute force. Unfortunately, that warning comes a little too late for another NR transport that is immediately beset upon by the pirates, though the captain of the ship suggests it feels more like an act of war. And on the planet Guat’a in a distant part of the galaxy, Han Solo helps his old cyborg ally Beilert Valance (previously the star of Marvel’s Star Wars: Bounty Hunters comic) out of a sticky situation in exchange for information about a dangerous gang called the Zantarrk that’s has gone from “zeros to major players" recently, causing lots of trouble in the Outer Rim.
On the gas giant, Luke is attacked by the pirate, who is wielding a bladed weapon and also offers Luke information (that we don’t hear) before setting off an electric suicide charge that kills the pirate and knocks the Jedi unconscious in the process. We know Luke survives (spoilers for The Mandalorian and the Star Wars sequel trilogy, both of which are set after this point in the timeline), but the question is: “How are all three of these subplots connected?" I suspect we’ll begin to find out next month, but in the meantime I’m pleased to say that I’m on board with Segura’s plotting and dialogue so far in this effort. It helps a lot that he’s got a ringer in illustrator Phil Noto (Star Wars: Chewbacca) as his artist for this initial arc, and I hope he sticks around even longer than that because he’s rather undeniably doing a bang-up job. This issue introduced a lot of thus-far unanswered questions, so it remains to be seen whether the answers actually go anywhere (so much of The Battle of Jakku felt meandering and anticlimactic to me), but as of right now I think we’re in good hands.
Star Wars #1 is available now wherever comic books are sold.